Hey there S2Ki-ers. Created my login a couple weeks ago while shopping for an S2K, and I went and bought one! Looking forward to connecting with other S2K enthusiasts & getting my dumb questions answered by those who have been there, done that.

About me:
Middle-aged IT professional, married, no kids, recovering equestrian, avid road & mountain biker. No track experience, limited AC experience a hundred years ago, just love pretty things and wanted to own & drive at least one legitimately exciting car before I'm to damn old to enjoy it. Considered Boxster S, SLK 320/350, Cooper S Convertible, and Miata before pulling the trigger on the Honda.

About the car:

• 2007 Silverstone ext. black/red interior
• 9600 miles. No, you read that right. Under 10K original miles.
• One owner, old(ish) professional like me
• As close to showroom condition as any used car I've ever seen
• All original except for sub woofer and stereo head unit

The purchase:
Flew the most anal car guy I've ever met - and my best friend from college - up to Seattle to check the car out. He's unemployed & has a small harem of current and future ex's in the Seattle area, so win-win. He found some unbelievably minor nicks here & there, but overall like new. Had the Honda dealer next door put it through a buyers inspection plus compression test. All good, with a little deferred maintenance. Flew up three days ago, checked it out for myself, negotiated a price and did the deal. Took an extra two hours to get out of the dealership, because, well, have you ever been to a dealership? I know there are only so many jobs at McDonalds, but sheesh, we are not talking the best and brightest here.

First Road Trip:
Hopped in the car & drove it 475 miles south to the in-laws place in Oregon through heavy rain & truly horrible traffic south of Portland. Got up the next morning and drove the last 325 miles through two snowy passes and about 1M semis on I-5 South to arrive safe & sound at home last night. Overall impressions: Sweet Mother of God, Buddah, Allah, Vishnu, etc, does that car ever drive beautifully. Civilized when it needs to be, savage when you want it to be. The last 4 miles before home were the first twisties in the entire trip, and even as tired as I was it still an absolute blast in the turns. I had only done short test drives in S2Ks prior to the road trip home, and, damn, do I ever love that car.

Any downsides? Yeah, a couple.

• It has the worst car stereo I've heard in 20 years. Original owner put in a sub woofer & new head unit, but left the original speakers. I played with every setting & while I could make it sound different, nothing I did made it sound anything lest than complete sh*t. I'll go search the threads for a strategy to fix this, because the current set up is so bad that I drove 800 miles home without using it for more than a couple minutes.
• Because of the sub woofer, there is no jack, tire iron or toolkit. Da fuq? Where did it go? What do you do if it gets a flat?
• Wicked bad blind spots with the top up. Lane changes are an exercise in patience and timidity.

A few pics for your viewing pleasure. These are from the dealer's web page; I'll get some better ones of my own up some day.

 

Congratulations on the purchase. She's a beautiful example of a great car.

http://www.dougsmazda.com/seattle-us...AP21457S001848 for those who were interested in more pictures and details.

 

Welcome.

Check out the link in my signature.

 

Looks like a real gem, congrats.
Levi

 

It's always good to see another car that looks like mine! Mine is an '06 purchased in July 2014 with 38K miles and two summers later has 48K. Keeping the miles low may preserve "value" but I bought it to drive it.

These cars are claustrophobic with the roof up as you noticed.

Radio? Roof down + intake noise + exhaust pretty much negates any radio. I left mine stock and really only use it for traffic and maybe on two hour trips on cruise control. I consider a spare tire to be a mandatory item even though I've not used one in 20 years. It'll be needed in East Bubba on a holiday weekend.

I swore I'd leave mine stock despite all the snickers I heard here when I made that pronouncement 18 months ago. I did preserve all the stock parts in my shed though! K&N FIPK intake just for the induction noise if nothing else, Tanabe Medalion Touring Exhaust behind a Berk high flow cat adds an adult exhaust note, and the combination plus Gernby tune adds about 10% more horsepower to the car. 221bhp at the rear wheels and much more mid-range power.

Interesting to see the sticker (in the dealer's photos). And the extra markup!

Have fun. Keep the VSA active until you know how the car handles. Consider high performance summer tires for maximum handling.

-- Chuck

 

"Civilized when it needs to be, savage when you want it to be" hahaha I love this quote.

As for the blind-spot issue I solved that by purchasing an oem hardtop and spoon wide rear mirror.

Hello and welcome to the Forums!